Report: Big Ten, ACC and Pac 12 expected to announce alliance as early as next week

Report: Big Ten, ACC and Pac 12 expected to announce alliance as early as next week

The Big Ten, ACC and Pac 12 are expected to announce an alliance as early as next week, according to a report from The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach.

The move comes in light of the recent shakeup in the south with Oklahoma and Texas expected to join the SEC sometime in the near future.

“Schools within the three conferences believe they are like-minded,” Auerbach writes. “that they want to continue to prioritize broad-based sports offerings and that the academic profile of their institutions matters — as does graduating athletes.”

With the Big 12 and SEC at war and two of the Big 12’s biggest money-makers Oklahoma and Texas, set to leave the conference, the language behind the alliance makes sense. In short: the Big Ten, ACC and Pac 12 want to continue the great traditions of college sports while the Big 12 and SEC battle over money and television deals.

Auerbach continues to note that “There are many administrators in the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC who believe in the collegiate model and want it to continue; even those who have enthusiastically embraced name, image and likeness reform don’t want to see college football become an actual minor league system for the NFL with a draft, player salaries and the like. They worry that the SEC’s aggression could lead to something like that.”

A potential alliance between the three conferences would likely include scheduling and more, focusing on building some sort of structure with the NCAA becoming increasingly fragmented.

What this means for Wisconsin is not yet clear. Though it does point towards the Big Ten conference maintaining the same structure and avoiding the conference realignment we’re seeing in the south.

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